The use of colour
PRIMARY OR PASTEL
The three primary colours are red, yellow and blue. They cannot be achieved by mixing any other colour, but other colours can be achieved by mixing the primaries in various proportions.
Pastels are lighter tones of any colour.
Primary, in this context, means those publications use strong , often 100%, colours.
Pastel means more muted tones and lower percentages.
Primaries are loud -
Pastels are subtler and are tend to be used in the more upmarket publications.
Advertisers prefer to use primary colours because they want to be seen.
If the advertising is in primary and the editorial in pastel then the balance of the page may be destroyed.
When using primaries limit the palette to just one or two colours.
CONTRASTING AND COMPLEMENTARY COLOURS
Complimentary colours share a pigment (yellow and orange, blue and purple, red and purple)
Contrasting colours do not share a pigment (yellow and purple, orange and blue)
Colours that clash are those that only just share a pigment (pink and orange)
Complimentary colours draw the elements of a page together while contrasting ones push them apart.
If you want top push an advert out of a page chose colours that contrast; if you want to bring it in, use colours that compliment.
A plug or blurb on a page that contains two unrelated items (women and sport, for instance) would use contrasting colours to highlight the difference. Two related blurbs would use complimentary colours.
If you want your page to look stylish use colours that compliment the main photograph.
COLOURS THAT NEED CARE
Some colour combinations are very difficult to read. Remember the old adage: Red and green should never be seen? It’s true!
Red is a hot colour, and green a cold, but they rarely work well together.
The same applies to blue and green, red and blue, purple and blue, purple and brown, red and brown, yellow and white.
Using black on anything other than white or yellow can also cause difficulties for the reader.
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